Pokemon Go: Wild tales of the video game craze

The new game Pokemon Go encourages players to use mobile phones to "track" and "catch" little cartoon monsters by searching for them in the real world.

The app identifies public spaces (and, mistakenly, the occasional private one) as "Pokestops" -- places where players can replenish their in-game supplies -- or "gyms," where rivals can pit their virtual monsters against each other.

Parks packed

This is what Central Park has been looking like since the Pokemon Go game was released in early July 2016.

The free game already has more users than mega-apps such as Tinder. There's also a growing number of real-world stories springing from it ... from game-related injuries and crimes to mysterious corpses to pro athletes getting in on the action.

Suspect caught, along with Pokemon

Two California Marine Corps veterans hunting for Pokemon found themselves catching a murder suspect instead.

On July 12, the two men were roving a park in Fullerton, California, when they found another man acting suspiciously. The veterans later grabbed the man, who, according to authorities, had an outstanding warrant for attempted murder in Sonoma County.

The suspect's name was not immediately released.

Pro athletes catching the fever

The Dallas Mavericks and other sports teams are using the phenomenon to promote their players, including point guard Devin Harris.

"We caught a Pokemon in free agency!" the team posted on its official Twitter page.

Players tripping

This July 8, 2016 photo shows the bruised shin of Lindsay Plunkett, a 23-year-old waitress in Asheville, N.C., after she tripped over a cinderblock that had been used as a doorstop while playing Pokemon Go.

The moral of the story: Sometimes it's wise to look up from your phone while chasing those animated critters.

Churches getting into the spirit

Yep: That's a real sign.

"We have plenty of people in our congregation playing the game," Brent Simpson, pastor of the Florida-based Brandon Assembly of God, told CBS News. "Sunday many of them came to me all excited that we were a Pokestop."

News, interrupted

Pokemon Go fever is also spreading to newsrooms, as evidenced by this weather report aired on WTSP-TV in Tampa.

Zoos discovering new critters

Zoos, art museums and private businesses are taking advantage of the craze to attract more visitors.

The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, for example, recently posted this picture on its official Twitter feed, adding, "Woodland Park Zoo is home to more than 300 species from across the globe -- and now a whole bunch more."

Gamers facing danger

Not every Pokemon Go story is a lighthearted one. Playing the game can also, apparently, be dangerous.

On July 10, police in Missouri arrested four teens (including Brett William Miller, pictured here) on suspicion of armed robbery. Police in the city of O'Fallon say the suspects used Pokemon Go as a tool to target victims.

"The way we believe it was used is, you can add a beacon to a Pokestop to lure more players," the city's police department said in an official release via Facebook. "Apparently they were using the app to locate people standing around in the middle of a parking lot, or whatever other location they were in."

Homes getting uninvited guests

Churches are often designated as "gyms" in Pokemon Go. Boon Sheridan, who lives in an old church in Massachusetts, recently learned that the game makers had pinpointed his house as a Pokemon gym. The fallout included ...

Strangers blocking driveways

... strangers driving by his house, blocking his driveway and ...

Neighbors showing up uninvited

Sheridan has also seen an influx of game fans hanging out on his sidewalk. The good-natured Sheridan seems to be embracing the phenomenon. "Woohoo!" he tweeted after taking this photo outside of his home. "Nice guy."

Players wiping out

A photo provided by Mike Schultz shows injuries he received when he crashed his skateboard while playing Pokemon Go near his home on Long Island in New York.

Pokemon player's discovery

In early July, while playing Pokemon Go near her Wyoming home, Shayla Wiggins, 19, discovered a corpse floating in the Wind River.

"The death appears to be accidental in nature," Undersheriff Ryan D. Lee of the Fremont County Sheriff's Office later said in a statement.

Pokemon Go's little coincidences

Pokemon Go player Jennifer McCreight posted this screen grab from the game on Twitter. For the record, Drowzee is a Pokemon character who can put rivals to sleep. And that sign is ... well, we know what it is.

"Of course Seattle would be full of Drowzee," McCreight posted. "I will never take a better #PokemonGO photo."

Come for Pokemon, stay for pets

A clever Indiana pet shelter recently invited Pokemon Go players to combine their play with a charitable service: Dog-walking. (Clyde, here, a Treeing Walker Coonhound mix, is one such available pooch.)

The invitation is working. The shelter tells CBS News that, on a normal day, it may get three volunteers. Since its Pokemon Go-themed invitation was first launched on Facebook, that number is up to around 70.

Phenomenon going worldwide

The game initially rolled out to players in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, and no area in those countries, no matter how remote, seems to be safe from Poke-mania.

"Whilst the Darwin Police Station may feature as a Pokestop," an Australian law enforcement agency recently posted on Facebook, "please be advised that you don't actually have to step inside in order to gain the pokeballs.

"It's also a good idea to look up, away from your phone and both ways before crossing the street. That Sandshrew isn't going anywhere fast."

Workplaces going Poke-crazy

Corporate handwringing already has begun over the game's potential to disrupt the workplace ... including a few very close to home. This image was taken in a CBS Interactive conference room in Burbank, California.

Some businesses get into it

This Salt Lake City-based retailer, Iconoclad, is embracing its status as a Pokestop. However ...

... Others aren't so thrilled

This photo was taken by an employee of a chain restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, where the boss had a stern warning: Put your phone down, or you'll have plenty of time to play when you're unemployed.

"I was in shock when I saw that my boss posted that," photographer Kevin Gonzales told CBS News, "and I'm sure she was serious about it."

No place for games

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. recently learned that it was a Pokestop, dismaying workers there.

"Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism," Andrew Hollinger, the museum's communications director, told The Washington Post. "We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game."